Sedalia to get new apartments

Council approves 2016 tax rates

Sedalia will be getting a new apartment complex, as announced during Monday night’s annexation public hearing.

The Sedalia City Council hosted a public hearing for an annexation petition for property owned by E.W. Thompson Inc. near Mitchell Road behind US Bank. The only public comments came from Adam Fischer, of E.W. Thompson, who told council what the land will be used for.

“We have signed a contract with a man named Zak Izoita who is going to build apartments there,” Fischer said.

Fischer told council the land is a total of 3.29 acres and E.W. Thompson is requesting council to zone the land as R-3. A portion of the land is already in city limits.

“We own a lot of land around there still, out south all the way to the nursing home, so we have a vested interest in seeing that he builds something of quality. We’re going to see to it,” Fischer told the Democrat after the hearing concluded. “We’ll have the right to approve the plans besides the city and we’re going to see to it that he builds something that’s quality in there, over and above what the city requirements are.”

The public hearing was the first of two steps to accomplish the annexation. Council will vote on the annexation of the property at the Sept. 19 meeting. Fischer didn’t have any details as to when the project would begin, but said Izoita, who Fischer said is a local developer, will close on the transaction with E.W. Thompson on Sept. 20.

“He’s anxious to close so I assume he’s going to be anxious to get started,” Fischer said.

The evening began with a public hearing for proposed tax rates for 2016. No comments were given and council immediately convened for a special meeting, during which it approved the tax rates for all purposes, which includes the Sedalia Public Library, the Special Business District and all other purposes (general, public parks, fire pension and police pension). The proposed 2016 tax rate is 1.9019 per $100 assessed valuation, which is lower than the 2015 rate of 1.9092.

“That’s a factor of the Hancock Amendment,” Finance Director Kelvin Shaw explained to the Democrat after the hearing. “Basically the Hancock Amendment says that a city cannot increase its revenues more than new construction and a limited inflation factor. So basically what they do is they take the assessed valuation and say ‘OK, this is the amount of revenue you can get’ and then they divide that out and say ‘this is the maximum levy you can have.’ We have to certify that by Sept. 1 each year.”

Shaw said the new rate will appear on citizens’ December tax bill and will remain in effect for any new construction for the entire 2017 calendar year.